Once again, my song of the moment is "The All Seeing Eye" by Alustrium. That song is about 9 minutes of pure awesomeness. My favorite portion of the song is from 6:33- 8:10. Hell, their whole 2011 album "An Absence of Clarity" is killer, but "The All Seeing Eye" is my favorite song on it. The album came on randomly during my drive with my iPod set on "album random" and I once again fell in love. Alustrium released an album back in 2015 and I need to check it out, because this band is so freaking good. Musically their material is complex without being "tech demo wankery riff salad" and their lyrics are strong and deep. There is some seriously intelligent songwriting happening here. I've only seen them live once (back in 2012 or so), and they absolutely tore it up!

Sometimes I wonder if there was ever a time a last-place Olympic diver decided before their final dive, "I'm in last place, I have nothing to lose, I might as well have some fun with this" then yell "CANNONBALL!" from the diving board before launching into a cannonball.

This has been my song of the moment from Friday till today, because that's all anyone around me has been singing. And since the celebration parade is on Thursday, that's going to be all anyone's singing all week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SosmpnWET4

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Sometimes I wonder if there was ever a time a last-place Olympic diver decided before their final dive, "I'm in last place, I have nothing to lose, I might as well have some fun with this" then yell "CANNONBALL!" from the diving board before launching into a cannonball.

Song of the moment is "The Silent Life" by Rivers of Nihil. This is from their upcoming album Where Owls Know My Name. I've seen Rivers of Nihil live before and I was sledgehammered by their insane musical skill, but felt that their music was kinda robotic. It was like a tech demo with mindblowing tech but hollow as a game. Anyway, something in my brain decided to give them another chance and I absolutely LOVED this song. It actually has me looking forward to the album. I love it when bands change my mind about them, because that means they're experimenting, evolving, and not just relying on tried and true formulas.

Sometimes I wonder if there was ever a time a last-place Olympic diver decided before their final dive, "I'm in last place, I have nothing to lose, I might as well have some fun with this" then yell "CANNONBALL!" from the diving board before launching into a cannonball.

I somehow introduced a few of my students to the song "Always Summer" by Yellowcard... and they loved it. One kid in particular, who plays drums in the school band, especially loved it. Slowly but surely, I'm subversively introducing the youth to music they haven't heard, but would like.

Always Summer is simply a great song that never fails to make me smile.

Sometimes I wonder if there was ever a time a last-place Olympic diver decided before their final dive, "I'm in last place, I have nothing to lose, I might as well have some fun with this" then yell "CANNONBALL!" from the diving board before launching into a cannonball.

Anyway, my song of the moment is "Doorway to Heaven" by Graveshadow. I'll admit, I wasn't very impressed by their prior material. I felt that the band had talent (especially the vocalist Heather, who I loved on Helion Prime's first album) but were playing generic paint-by-numbers songs. However, I'm really digging this and the other teaser track from their upcoming Ambition's Price album. This band has clearly been spending their between-album time putting in serious work to improve their skill, sound, and songwriting on all levels. If the rest of the album is as good as these songs, then I may have to put this in the running for "Most improved band of 2018."

Speaking of Helion Prime, after they parted ways with Heather they recruited another vocalist named Kayla who did not last long. They now have a fellow named Sozos and I definitely like his voice and the lyrics he wrote for this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nytTOpMwj0E . I think his lyrics and vocal melodies flow with the song better than the original lyrics. I'm sure plenty of people will bag on the band for not "staying tr00" with a lady singer, but talent knows no gender and what's important is having band members that bring out the best in everyone and inspire them to become better.

So much killer music this year so far and more on the horizon. New Rivers of Nihil and Strychnia albums slay, new Graveshadow has promise, I hope the new Helion Prime and Eluveitie albums come out this year (I'm loving that new Eluveitie song Rebirth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-pSq4MJmy8)

« Last Edit: March 23, 2018, 08:26:50 PM by Dincrest »

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Sometimes I wonder if there was ever a time a last-place Olympic diver decided before their final dive, "I'm in last place, I have nothing to lose, I might as well have some fun with this" then yell "CANNONBALL!" from the diving board before launching into a cannonball.

I'd been so caught up in my real life stuff early in the year, that I completely missed the news that back in January, one of my all time favorite bands hung up their spurs. They had an incredible 41 year run and with pretty much the same lineup too! That's unheard of, and makes them something of a music biz unicorn. All three members of this bands are legendary talents and I never got to see them live and now never will. I had a love/hate relationship with this band and their music, but I'm all the more grateful for it because challenged my thinking and conventions and everything. I'm firmly in the "Love them!" camp.

The band is Rush.

And my song of the moment is "Ghost of a Chance" by them. When that song came on my MP3 player during my commute yesterday, I must have played it 5 times in a row. That's what made me look them up again and I found the news.

Sometimes I wonder if there was ever a time a last-place Olympic diver decided before their final dive, "I'm in last place, I have nothing to lose, I might as well have some fun with this" then yell "CANNONBALL!" from the diving board before launching into a cannonball.

^ I was not aware of their ending, either... 4 decades is plenty long enough. Thanks, guys. While I've personally never been able to get into anything out of the Hemispheres -> Signals period, their musicianship is indeed legendary.

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"Movies are better than people. You don't have to smell who you're watching." ~ Baby Cakes

I was just thinking about something. Geddy's voice seems to be the biggest love it/hate it factor of the band. I cringe at some of his shrieking circa Fly By Night, but I love how his voice mellows out circa Roll the Bones. However, even if you can't stand Geddy's voice, can you really imagine Rush with any other voice? I sure can't.

And I think the "unsung hero" component to Rush's music is Neil Peart's lyrics. Looking at the man's deep writing on such a wide breadth of subject matter... it's one of those inspiring things that keeps me always wanting to keep learning, keep expanding my knowledge base. And the more I learn, the more I realize I don't know a darn thing, so I continue feeding that addiction to learning to fill in those gaps.

EDIT: As for my current song of the moment, it's "Growin' Up Sux" by my friends' old band Nellie and the Elephants. It's a song about getting old, because having been in touch with a lot of my old friends recently, it's hit me that we're all getting old. Even the current musical project I'm in is primarily a studio project because we're old(er) and don't want to do the late night gigging, touring, and all that stuff any more. Plus, how many people want to go out and see a band of 40-50somethings, unless they're famous?

Sometimes I wonder if there was ever a time a last-place Olympic diver decided before their final dive, "I'm in last place, I have nothing to lose, I might as well have some fun with this" then yell "CANNONBALL!" from the diving board before launching into a cannonball.

So, YouTube recommended me this song called "White Lies" by an up-and-coming band called Dream State. Normally YouTube's recommendations are trash and bands like Dream State are dime a dozen these days, but this was surprisingly good. I definitely felt the raw emotion in their performance and lyrics, even if the hooks and songwriting aren't the most original. I also like that the frontwoman wasn't this glammed up doll prancing around in skimpy and/or cheeseball clothing merely to get cheap hits. She presented herself with effortless modesty and simply let her talent and expressiveness speak for itself. Plus, it made the entire band look like a unit and not just a disposable bunch of dudes behind a pop tart. Too many bands of this nature come off like they're trying too hard, but Dream State weren't. I feel like this band would be jammin' to see live.

I just hope that if they get big that they don't fall prey to "the biz" pigeonholing them to look, write, and perform a certain way. It's conflicting when I'd like to see a promising band get bigger, but also don't want to see them lose their integrity, ya know?

Sometimes I wonder if there was ever a time a last-place Olympic diver decided before their final dive, "I'm in last place, I have nothing to lose, I might as well have some fun with this" then yell "CANNONBALL!" from the diving board before launching into a cannonball.